Check Ups and Updates

We sort of disappeared last week from the Blog world! It was a busy one. Jmk's dad, PopPop, went into the hospital on Tuesday for heart issues (he had a heart attack, well - 2 actually, 10 years ago), and just got released yesterday. (Yay for being back at home!) I don't know how much he would like for me to be sharing online, so we'll just say that while everything isn't "fixed", he was well enough to go home, and praise the Lord for that! We love you PopPop!

Tuesday night, the stars aligned properly, and all of my siblings were under one roof for about 2 hours. (obviously, that doesn't happen very often). Everyone was over at our house for a brief time. L was down from Nashville, and D came over from Birmingham, so we gathered! Jmk had been up with PopPop during the day, but SueSue spelled him and he came home to the craziness of my family. Good man.

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving Day. We left Thursday morning for Gulfport, and spent the day with Jmk's aunt and that side of the family. (Came home Thursday evening). It was wonderful, and Aunt J's house looked amazing. It is extraordinary how much she and DB have been able to accomplish since Katrina. I mean, if you didn't know that she had done some interior updating, you'd never know that flood waters gutted their home.

I had wanted to tour the Coastline a bit while I was there, but didn't get a chance with all the baby chasing and food eating that we did. However, we took the long way to J's house and drove down Hwy 90 from 49 to Courthouse Road.

All I can say is wow. First thing that got me was not being able to tell where I was. I think I was expecting complete desolation or something, but it wasn't quite like that. It amazed us how many of those big beautiful live oaks were still standing. But, see, that's all that was there. The big houses were all, just, gone. The large home where I learned to ballroom dance - gone. Chimney's (the new one) - gone. Just not there anymore. I couldn't tell where I was. When we were coming up on the Courthouse road intersection, I told Jmk that I thought this was where we turned left, but I wasn't sure until we got up on the road sign. Because all of my visual landmarks were just not there.
It was weird.

What struck me is how tired everything seemed to feel. Not tired in a "everything looks run down" sort of way. Because I saw some brand new gorgeous homes already erected. But the spirit down there just seemed in dire need of some rest. You can imagine.
I was sort of disturbed by the time I got to J's house, and that was from the tiny little bit that I had seen. I can only imagine what has been in the hearts of those who live there and are working to literally rebuild not just homes but an entire feeling and state of mind.

I lived in Gulfport for a couple of years after college, and it IS true that Mississippi is a different state below I-10. In a good way - don't misunderstand. So, working to rebuild that coastal state of mind is going to be an ongoing thing. I know it will return, though. As long as the coastline doesn't turn into one big casino. If THAT happens, then things really will feel different.

ANYway..... so, we are back to "normal" life now. Jmk is back at work. (Took most of last week off). Tooter has the sniffles again. Came down with those on Friday evening. We're all in the "get back into it" mode.

The kids both had checkups this morning. Poodle had her 3 YO checkup, and Tooter had his 1 YO checkup, with shots. They both are looking good and are right on track with height and weight and all that. Toot weighed in at 24 1/2 lbs. It's a good thing he's walking! Still, though, he's following the normal curve for babies. Not that they all weigh this much at this age. lol...... but, his weight IS slowing down as it does when babies aren't nursing as much and are graduating to table foods and are more mobile.

Poodle got to teetee in a cup for the first time, and in her words, "that was fun!" ::grin:: Here's hoping she doesn't think she "ought" to do that now she's at home.

We got some other meds suggestions for Toot's eczema, but as usual, the doctor just said to stay on top of it, and try anything that we think might help. Eczema is notoriously fickle from person to person, and what works for one doesn't necessarily help another.

And, just in case anyone actually remembers that I said 3 months ago that I wanted to lose 5 lbs by this visit.... well, I did. Hold on - don't think I did anything good. Between the stomach virus a couple of weeks ago, and a couple of other things that affected my weight, I did lose the weight. BUT, I didn't actually do anything to make that happen. So, I'm not exactly proud. Now, what WOULD be good is if I can lose another 5 lbs "for real" before his next checkup, which is in another 3 months. And this time, I need to do it by actually starting to exercise! Riiiiight after I get finished with the leftover pecan pie that my mom made. ::ahem::

Wow. This turned into quite the long post! If you have actually made it this far, I am extremely impressed!!! Thanks so much for checking in with us. Keep PopPop in your prayers, and don't let those tangled Christmas lights get to you this year. Love to all!